Linkpost | 12.16.2013

• The NSA: An Inside View – A former NSA employee writes that you shouldn’t worry about the agency scooping up your private information in its surveillance because, basically, you’re too boring for the spies to care about. This piece was approved by the NSA before publication, and the author is trying to start a company that sells paleo mayonnaise.

• The Mission to Decentralize the Internet – The original concept of the Internet was a decentralized network, but what we have today is a system controlled by a handful of corporations. Efforts have been made to “take back” the Internet, but they’ve largely failed.

• Shameless Carriers – Carriers like AT&T keep whining about having to subsidize iPhones, but guess what? There really is no subsidy, writes Jean-Louis Gassée, who calls carriers “loan sharks”.

• A Stream of Music, Not Revenue – Streaming music services are growing in number and users seem to like them . . . but they don’t like paying for them.